Let's Go Ride a Bike

I have a confession to make. I am a failure as a mother.

Let me elaborate. My over-achieving, good at everything, type A six-and-a-half year old doesn't know how to ride a bike. Looking back on my failure, I can't for the life of me figure out how this happened.

He's always had a bike. First a tricycle, then a small bike with training wheels, then a larger bike with training wheels that Grandpa had to get for him (it's a John Deere bike). Over the years we talked about taking off the training wheels, and Tucker always put it off for another day. He was never very interested in learning. It wasn't important to him.

Then last year at Christmas the boys wanted to get Trey a bike so they could all go ride bikes together. I thought it would be the perfect push to get Tucker on two wheels, so we got Daddy a bike.

The bike, however, turned out to be problematic. See, sometimes I'm, well, cheap. I didn't know if Trey would actually ride the bike, so I encouraged the boys to pick out the one that was $80 at Target. I figure if he loved it and rode it all the time, we could get him a cool bike for Father's Day in June. Basically, we picked out a test bike.

A test bike that Trey doesn't like. He's never actually voiced his displeasure, but I can tell. The bike is apparently rather trendy, and it's certainly not something Trey can see himself out riding around the neighborhood on. I should have remembered about my (dare I say) picky husband when I purchased the test bike, but I was too busy trying to be cheap. Either way, I don't believe he's ever actually been on it outside the privacy of our back patio. It looks something like this:

Sorry, Trey, if you are offended by my honesty. You are welcome to add your comments. Please remember that I love you. :) (If anyone reading this has a cool used bike that they'd like to trade for a trendy new bike, let me know.)

Back to the point of the story. About two months ago in a fit of wild determination, I took the training wheels off of Tucker's bike. I figured he'd sink or swim. Learn to ride the bike or don't ride at all. Tough love, that's what I was doing.

It didn't work. He still just didn't care. He'd much rather be playing baseball in the front yard than falling off a bike in the back, so he never practiced.

Then, for Keaton's fourth birthday on June 6th, he wanted (you guessed it!) a bike. Again, my determination to get Tucker on two wheels grew deeper. Surely he would want to out-do his baby brother who was on training wheels.

I told Trey that Tucker would learn to ride a bike this summer if we had to practice day and night. He can't be the only kid in first grade who doesn't know how to do it. I refused to let it happen. So Trey put a twenty dollar bill on the bar and told Tucker it was his when he could ride. Boy, did that get him practicing! Being Tucker, of course he didn't want too much help. He just wants to keep trying to figure it out himself.

In the mean time, we became a three bike family with a lazy mom. Thus, I began my quest for a cheap, used ladies bike. I scoured the school district's swap shop, message boards with classifieds, and craigslist. There were plenty of used women's bikes -- for like $200. Aside from domestic automobiles, nothing used should cost $200. The bike I was looking for didn't exist.

Until yesterday when God sent it to me. I happened to check craigslist at about 4:30, someone happened to post a bike for sale for $50, I happened to reply that I'd pay $30, and the person happened to respond that I had to pick it up by 6:30 because she was moving to another city. Coincidence? I don't think so, either. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision, but I went with my gut.

Here's my new bike:

The young woman I purchased it from said it works great and even has a brand new chain. She told me the back brakes need to be adjusted, and I said, "Oh, that's no big deal" even though I have no concept of what that actually means. It's rusty, the seat is torn on the side, and it needs some paint, but now I can finally take the boys on a bike ride. Just like a good mother would do.

Except Tucker still can't do it. He works and works and tries and tries and just can't figure it out. I keep telling him he's doing great and that once he gets it he'll be riding all over the place, but to no avail. I keep waiting for our sitcom moment - just like when Ben Seaver and Bobby Brady and Jennifer Keaton finally took off amidst the cheers of their entire families. It only took them thirty minutes to learn to ride a bike, and that was including commercials!

So if any of you are professional bike riding instructors, please pass along your wisdom. Help the Hickman family become those annoying people taking up the whole sidewalk with their family bike rides. If your advice is really good, we may even let you come along!